site banner
ymeskhout  1yr ago (text post)   2543 thread views

The Bailey Podcast E032: Information Goons

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts, Podcast Addict, and RSS.

In this episode, we discuss information addiction.

Participants: Yassine, Jason, Neophos, Shakesneer. Credit to Internaut for the inspiration.

Links:

None. Go outside.

Recorded 2023-05-08 | Uploaded 2023-06-03

17
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I listened to most of this so far. Good stuff, though I'd like to see more discussion of the types and evolution of news feeds. I see two basic types, though I guess you could also call it a spectrum - the "simple" type which contains only posts by people you have explicitly followed in strictly chronological order, and the "algorithm" type where an algorithm shows you an endless series of posts based on what it thinks you'd like, which may or may not have any connection to accounts you follow, posts you react to, etc. In the beginning, everything was simple feeds, which IMO are much less likely to lead to that kind of behavior. But nowadays it seems like pretty much everything is moving to algorithmic feeds.

I tackled that with the Facebook feed evolution which used to be plain vanilla chronology for a brief moment IIRC. But pretty much everyone (Twitter, FB, IG, Reddit, etc.) fully embraced algorithm feeds and it has been the de facto standard for a long time now. The only simple feeds that are still popular are podcasts, which are by far the most enduring RSS implementation. I guess email newsletters are another example of a successful simple feed (and somehow key to Substack's success) but I do not understand them and I'm horrified by the thought of cluttering my inbox with hot takes.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats